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wendish news WENDISHW HERITA GE SOCIETY A USTRALIA NUMBER 63 SEPTEMBER 2019 Clockwise from top left: 1. The Sorbian choir “Budyšin” C ONTENTS at the unveiling of the Schütze memorial at Rachlau (see p.10). 2. Kevin Zwar at his retirement luncheon (see 1. CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS. 2 p.11). 3. Our Tour group at the grave of Andreas Kappler in Lake Terrace Cemetery, Mount Gambier (see pp. 3–7) 2. PAST EVENTS. 3 3. LIBRARY . 8 Invitation to Annual Luncheon 4. RESEARCH . 10 You are warmly invited, along with family and 5. GENERAL NEWS. 11 friends, to attend our Annual Luncheon on 6. ITEMS FROM OTHER SOCIETIES’ JOURNALS. 11 Saturday 26 October in Ballarat, Victoria. See booking details on page 2. 7. BIRTHDAYS. 12 8. DIRECTORY . 12 Calendar of upcoming events Annual Luncheon, 170th Anniversary of the Arrival of Saturday 26 October 2019 the Pribislaw, 26 April 2020 Our Annual Luncheon will be held at the Lady This celebration will take place at Ziebell’s Barkly room, Barkly Motorlodge, 43 Main Road, Farmhouse, 100 Gardenia Rd, Thomastown, Vic. Bakery Hill, Ballarat, Victoria. All are welcome. All descendants of Pribislaw passengers are invited. Time: 12.00 for a 12.30pm start, Saturday 26 There were about 50 Wends who came to Australia October 2019. on the Pribislaw, which was named after the last Cost: Approx. $30.00 per person, to be paid on the Wendish prince, who died in 1174. The ship was day by individual attendees. built in Ribnitz in Mecklenburg. The Bernstein Please book by Monday 14 October 2019 by contacting: Museum at Ribnitz has kindly arranged to build Glenys Wollermann, Telephone: (03) 9891 6652 or a scale model of the ship for Ziebell’s Farmhouse Email: [email protected] Museum. It will be unveiled at this Anniversary cel- Bookings are essential. ebration. Ziebell’s Farmhouse (c.1850–51) is at 100 Gardenia Goethe Plaque Dedication, Road, Thomastown, Vic. It is Victoria’s oldest German immigrant building. From 20 October 2019 it will be open Sunday 24 November 2019 to the public every Sunday from 11.30am–3.00pm. The unveiling and dedication of a memorial plaque will take place at 2.00 pm on Sunday 24 November Tour to South Australia, May 2020 at Grave site 13 in the “Other Denominations” sec- Planning is underway for Lyall Kupke to lead our tion B at Melbourne General Cemetery. group on a tour of Wendish sites. The tour will The plaque will record the nine young children take place in May 2020, to coincide with South who were buried in this unmarked grave in the Australia’s History Festival. Please note that this years 1854-1871. They include three daughters of will replace our usual Labour Day weekend tour. Pastor Matthias and Mrs Harriet Goethe, of Trinity More details will be provided in the next Newsletter. German Lutheran Church, East Melbourne; one For enquiries and bookings, contact: daughter of Pastor Johann Peter and Mrs Annie Betty Huf, Telephone: (03) 5572 4959 Niquet of St John’s Lutheran Church, Ballarat; Email: [email protected] and five infant children of Carl and Wilhelmine Golgerth. Members of AKi (the Historical Society of Trinity German Lutheran Church) and members of FoLAV (the Friends of Lutheran Archives Victoria) formed a “Goethe Plaque Working Group” to undertake this project. The group is grateful for the generos- ity of donors who have made this project possible: Trinity German Lutheran congregation, Doncaster- Ivanhoe Lutheran congregation, Wendish Heritage Society Australia, Friends of Westgarthtown, Friends of Lutheran Archives Victoria and Doncaster- Templestowe Historical Society. Annual General Meeting, Saturday 14 March 2020 Our Society’s AGM will be held at 1.30 pm, fol- lowed by afternoon tea. All are welcome. The venue is our meeting room at St Aidan’s Community Centre, 12 Surrey St, Box Hill South, Victoria. Betty Huf at the Family History Expo in Hamilton (see p. 7). PHOTO SUPPLIED BY ROB WUCHATSCH. 2 1. Early settler’s limestone cottage, home of the Hirth family, Mount Gambier. 2. Replica of the brig “HMS Lady Nelson” at the Mount Gambier Visitor Centre. Past events Labour Day Weekend Tour to Mount Gambier, 9–11 March 2019 The tour to the Mount Gambier area of South ily displayed great care and compassion towards the Australia, led by Betty Huf, was a resounding local Boandik Aborigines, by establishing a home success. A total of 24 people attended part or all and a school for them. Although James died in 1860, of the activities on the itinerary. It was wonderful Christina continued to rear their seven children and to see some “first timers” on the tour. Below is care for the sick and needy in the area, including the John Noack’s report. Aborigines. She died in April 1893 and was buried 1. The “Lady Nelson” Visitor and Discovery in the Mount Gambier Cemetery. Centre was an informative location for this tour to 3. Mount Gambier’s RSL Museum provided a begin. There were many colorful tourist brochures sad reminder that wars are waged at a great cost in on display and the large replica of the brig “HMS money and in human lives. It has been estimated Lady Nelson” recalled the very important role per- that 180 million people were killed in the World formed by this ship from 1800 until its destruction Wars and in other conflicts during the 1900s. This by fire in 1824. In 1800, captained by Lieutenant local RSL Museum displayed reminders of sand-bag James Grant, this brig became the first ship to sail shelters; of very large and cumbersome radios and of from the west through Bass Strait. Two mountains the feared Nazi flag and emblem. However, it was which were sighted inland were named after Lord interesting to read the displayed article “Rommel’s Gambier and Captain Schank. This area was first War without Hate”, (or “Krieg Ohne Hass”), which named “Gambierton” and later, “Mount Gambier”. depicts Field Marshal Erwin Rommel as a sort of 2. Christina Smith was featured here in an “Gentleman General”, who preferred to engage in impressive hologram video presentation. The holo- “chivalrous conduct” and “soldierly honor”. He gram image of Christina Smith steps out of a wed- pursued this aim [1] by insisting that all of his cap- ding photograph to tell the story of early contact tured soldiers were given exactly the same rations between settlers and Aboriginal people. Christina of food as his own soldiers and also [2] by ensur- (nee Menzies) and her husband James were the first ing that captured hospitals and their doctors were European settlers in this area. They migrated to able to continue treatment of their injured patients. Australia from Scotland in about 1840. In 1846, they The doctors were then repatriated through neutral settled at the Rivoli Bay sea-port. This Smith fam- Switzerland. 3 Past events… continued Clockwise from top left: 1. Umpherston Sinkhole or “sunken garden”. 2. Meischel Park plaque. 3. Our Tour group at Blue Lake Pumping Station. 4. Meischel Park Cemetery plaque. 4. The Umpherston Sinkhole or “sunken garden” The Mount Gambier Local Council assumed was a part of the property of James Umpherston, responsibility for this Cemetery in the 1970s and by who settled in this area in 1860. By 1884, he had 1986, this Cemetery became Meischel Park, being developed this Sinkhole into a pleasant resort for named after its second Pastor. The plaque lists the his family and also for the townspeople of Mount 76 burials between 1864 and 1907. These include Gambier. Sinkholes appear when rainwater, which such surnames as Fiedler, Kalms, Koehler, Krause, absorbs carbon dioxide from decaying vegetation, Kreig, Kuehne, Lange, Leschke, Lindner, Meyer, then forms into carbonic acid, which soaks into and Mueller, Nitschke, Noske, Paschke, Patzel, dissolves the limestone’s calcite or calcium carbonate Pfeiffer, Pohlner, Proposch, Roesler, Ruwoldt, below the surface. When the underlying limestone Schluder, Schubert, Vorwerk and Zippel. eventually collapses, a large sinkhole appears. 6. The Lake Terrace Cemetery is preserv- 5. Meischel Park was called the “Boandik ing the grave and the memory of Pastor Andreas Lutheran Cemetery”, before about the year 1980. Kappler. He left his Wendish homeland and his It had been used by the ELCA (the Evangelical parish of Weissenberg in Lusatia, Saxony in 1848, in Lutheran Church of Australia) from 1864 to 1907. order to serve the pastoral needs of the Saxon and This Boandik Congregation was originally estab- Prussian Wends and others, who had made Australia lished by Pastor C.W. Schürmann in 1859. From their new home. He spent much time and effort in 1863 to 1878, Pastor J.F. Meischel served this locating the Lutherans over a very wide area and congregation. Pastor J.E. Hansen was the next kept meticulous and detailed baptism and marriage Pastor, from 1880-1912. However, as most families records of the people he served. shifted elsewhere, the congregation closed in 1907. In 1860 Kappler visited Mount Gambier. Dr However, this ELCA branch began renewed activi- Edward Wehl persuaded him to stay. Kappler ties in the 1930s and St Matthew’s Congregation was remained Pastor at St Martin’s Lutheran Church established in 1948. until his death in 1877. His tombstone states: 4 Clockwise from left: 1. Betty Huf and Glenys Wollermann placing tributes on Kappler’s grave. 2. St Martin’s Lutheran Church. 3. Interior of “Dingley Dell” cottage. 4. Some of Adam Lindsary Gordon’s belongings on display in “Dingley Dell” cottage. 5. Patzel, Ruwoldt and Lindner headstones at St Martin’s Lutheran Church. In Memory of Andreas Kappler, Lutherischer Pastor out of gratitude, to practise philanthropy and to be an [at] der Martini Kirche in Mount Gambier.